The Lions Clubs of Iowa celebrate a major milestone in their partnership with the Iowa Lions Eye Bank by driving over one million miles across the state of Iowa for eye donation.
The Iowa Lions Eye Bank is the only eye bank in the state and relies on quick transportation of ocular tissue to their main office located in Coralville. In 2009, Lions Club volunteers took over transportation duties from the Iowa State Patrol and began an almost daily transport from the Des Moines area to Coralville. As of September 2018, this program as logged over one million miles of travel.
In 2017 alone, the transportation program impacted donation and research at the Iowa Lions Eye Bank by transporting 1250 tissues from 625 donors located throughout western and central Iowa, and provided 791 corneal transplants for recipients, which is 73% of all transplanted tissue available at the eye bank. In the past 19 years, over 4,800 corneas have been transported by 208 Lions Clubs members.
Thank you, Lions Clubs of Iowa. Our work wouldn’t be possible without you!